Wierd carb problem on 394

Ok, I rebuild a 394 a couple months ago with a good used P&C, just finally got around to rebuilding the carb and getting it running.

It seems like its running crazy rich, so I leaned it out, still sounds rich, to my surprise, when I checked where the needle was the H needle was all the way in tight???? It idle's fine, so it seems like it doesn't have an air leak. Wierd thing, the saw when I got it was toast P&C was about the worst I've ever seen from lean seizure, I check the carb to see what it was set to and found the H needle was only open 1/3 a turn???? So I figured that was the issue, and one of the guy that was cutting with him said the saw was screaming crazy fast, I figured he just leaned it way out and killed it. If I set H needle to 1 1/4 open, it just run way rich, thats where my other 394 runs is just over 1 turn, stock with modded mufflers on both. I suppose I should just swap carbs and see if it fixes it???/

I was working on a little 009L the other day and the high speed jet needle had a tight spot so bad that I thought it was bottomed out and it still had two turns to go. I don't know a good way to check that without damaging the needle if it is tight already. When you bottom the high and low are they the same height?

It could be that some ham-fisted operator turned the high needle in too hard and damaged the seat. So now it's finicky and hard to keep in tune. I had a cutter do that to a new 044 magnum back in the mid-90's and the only fix was a brand new carb.

It could be that some ham-fisted operator turned the high needle in too hard and damaged the seat. So now it's finicky and hard to keep in tune. I had a cutter do that to a new 044 magnum back in the mid-90's and the only fix was a brand new carb.

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I'll check that, the guy that tuned it last, didn't know what he was doing.

I just reset the needles, H to 1.5 L to 1.25, tached it was reading 10,200 and lots of burble, richen H to 1.25 picked up to 11,500 and still burbleing allot. I'm afraid to go much richer, don't want to screw it up, It ran with the needle closed last time. I'll swap to my known good 394 carb and see what happens.

Finally got a chance today to swap the carbs, and yes, it was the carb?? Runs fine with the other carb. Anything to look for in the old carb? I did just rebuild it. I've taken it apart 3 times checking it over to make sure I didn't do it wrong. Everything is in the correct order. I haven't checked the needles yet though for damage.

It sure is good to have 2 of everything when trying to diagnose problems like carbs and electronic ignitions, coils etc. Glad you narrowed it down to one bad carb. I also did some work this weekend on two 394`s, actually made one runner out of two parts saws, man have I got to tear down the runner to see what was done to it previously, its one aggressive beast. It beats the h-ll out of the Jonsred 2094 that I`ve got, the Jonsey is stock and its evident this 3094 is not.
Pioneerguy600

I know how to read instructions but I seldom follow them.

Every saw is a favorite saw at some point in time.

Its good to dabble in the sewer, you will really appreciate getting out.

It sure is good to have 2 of everything when trying to diagnose problems like carbs and electronic ignitions, coils etc. Glad you narrowed it down to one bad carb. I also did some work this weekend on two 394`s, actually made one runner out of two parts saws, man have I got to tear down the runner to see what was done to it previously, its one aggressive beast. It beats the h-ll out of the Jonsred 2094 that I`ve got, the Jonsey is stock and its evident this 3094 is not.
Pioneerguy600